Sunday, March 2, 2008

On exhibit at the SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM is artist CAI GUO-QIANG's "I Want To Believe" from February 22 through May 28. I took photos of one of Cai's work called "Inopportune: Stage One" occupying the central atrium. The art installation is a cascade of nine real cars, some of which are suspended from the top of the museum's rotunda, as well as sequenced multichannel light tubes of varying lengths. The white nine cars are installed in a cinematic progression with an "explosion" of lights to simulate a car bombing.

Early in his career, Chinese native Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a large scale. He has become known for his signature explosion projects including this exhibition. This is the first major exhibition for a China-born artist at the Guggenheim Museum which is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street.